Green Street Blog

The Green Street Arts Center of Wesleyan University would like to welcome you to participate in our Greening Green Street Mosaic Project by taking a mosaic class taught by nationally known pebble mosaicist Debora Aldo.

We will be hosting several afternoon mosaic workshops this spring. These are the dates, stay tuned for more details.

Wednesday, February 19 from 5:00-8:00pm (Make+Take)

Saturday, February 22 from 1:00-5:00pm (Make+Leave)

Saturday, March 29 from 1:00-4:00pm (Make+Take)

Make+Leave Workshop — Come to the Green Street Art Center and learn how to make a pebble mosaic in this 4-hour workshop. You will make a black and white pebble mosaic that will become part of a permanent installation in the front Green Street garden – a space for youth education programs and community gathering. The mosaic stays but you take the knowledge of the process with you so that you can make another at your own pace in your own space! The cost of the class is normally $140 with Deb, but you pay only $65 to be a part of this community project.

Make+Take Workshop — You can come and make a small craft style mosaic during a 3-hour mini-workshop using stone, glass and ceramic and mortar. All materials are provided and you will bring the project home. This is a basic mosaic class, no experience needed. There is an explanation of cutting and fitting of materials. Simple designs, basic instruction and small substrates are provided. The cost of this class is $65.

If the classes sound great but you would rather just donate to the project and leave the mosaic making to the Green Street AfterSchool students, you can Sponsor an AfterSchool Student’s Mosaic.

Workshop fees help us purchase materials for the AfterSchool portion of the Greening Green Street Mosaic Project.

Call or email Green Street today at 860-685-7871 or gsac@wesleyan.edu to sign up for a mosaic workshop.

Quality health care coverage is now within reach for everyone.

See how Connecticut is making it easier for Individuals and Families to get the coverage they need by attending the enrollment fair at the Green Street Arts Center.

Date: Friday, January 24th, 2014

Time: 9:00am-12:00pm

Location: 51 Green Street, Middletown, CT

• Greeting visitors
• Answering the phone, forwarding calls, taking messages
• Monitoring general email
• Assisting with AfterSchool Program dismissal and parents
• Checking in private lesson/class/workshop students and instructors
• Event set up and clean up in arts café/kitchen

We have new set up this spring for Grade 6-8 students. We will have one class offering each day of the week for two hours, from 3:15-5:15pm. The fee is $300 per class for the semester and financial assistance is available. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to offer homework help for the middle school students. However, we hope the extended class time and interdisciplinary class options will get students engaged and learning more about art, math, and science.
Here are the class offerings for the spring.

Mondays – Video and Animation with Marc Pettersen: Students learn the basics of animation, character design, and movement. The class works as a team to create animated, hand-drawn shorts to be displayed at our end of semester showcase.

Tuesdays – Art and Math with Renee Soares: Students explore the world of math through various art forms and techniques. The class creates colorful tessellations, paper pyramids, three dimensional objects using the ancient Japanese technique of kirigame, and intricate mandalas that when connected become a labyrinth.

Wednesdays – Art and Science with Lindsay Behren: Students find scientific connections with various subjects and use various art forms to explore those scientific concepts in a creative way. Past themes have included ocean animals and hot air balloons.

Thursdays – Experience Music, An Exploration of Sound from Around the World with recent Wesleyan graduate Jessica Best: Students interact with music traditions from different cultures around the globe including Ghanian drumming, South Indian singing, Taiko drumming, experimental music, and jazz. The class includes visiting musicians from Wesleyan who show the students how to play the instruments themselves and create their own ensembles. This class also includes the opportunity for middle school students to serve as mentors to our younger students (Grades 3-5).

Fridays – Wesleyan Bound, the College Experience with two Wesleyan students and a staff advisor on campus: Students visit Wesleyan University weekly to meet student leaders, tour science labs, talk to professors, explore art galleries, and more. Each semester of Wesleyan Bound is a unique experienced aimed at exposing students to life on a college campus.

Call us at 860-685-7871 for more information. We are setting up registration appointments for spring semester AfterSchool classes the next few weeks. Anyone interested should contact Mrs. Cookie at the front desk to set up an appointment.

We have a great selection of art, math, and science classes at Green Street this spring. Talk to your kids and sign up early for their first class picks. The semester runs from January 27 – May 9, 2014.

Elementary school students (Grades 1-5) have 2-3 class choices for every day of the week from 4:15-5:15pm. We also offer homework help Monday-Thursday after class until 5:45pm. Middletown Public Schools transport student directly to Green Street and parents or guardians are responsible for pick up.

The fee is $150 per class day for the semester and $75 per homework help day. Financial assistance is available. We also have programming for Middletown’s early dismissal days. An extra $5 per half day will be applied to the total semester fee.

Classes for Grades 1-3 include:

• Art and Science
• Recess Rocks
• Musical Mentoring
• Sign Language
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Yoga
• Hip Hop
• Environmental Art
• Art Around the World
• Science Club
• Breakdance
• Felt Fiesta
• Word Play

Classes for Grades 3-5 include:

• Fashionistas
• Breakdance
• Musical Mentoring
• Art and Science
• Hip Hop
• A Cappella
• Improv Theater
• Experience World Music
• Kids in the Kitchen 2
• Digital Art
• Capoeira
• African Drumming

At the end of the semester we celebrate the student work at a Solstice Celebration. They put on performances and display their artwork from their classes.

Call us at 860-685-7871 for more information or to set up a registration appointment.

Wesleyan professor, Brian Northrup, visiting Green Street for three days in a row to do a series of science experiments about plastics with our middle school students. The students learned all about polymers, made their own silly putty, and learned how mood rings work by making crystals that reacted to temperature.

Wesleyan professor, Meredith Hughes, and her college students visited the Green Street AfterSchool Program to do a series of astronomy activities with our elementary school students. Dr. Hughes carried in three surprisingly small boxes and unpacked a portable planetarium that transformed our Performance Studio into scenes from the cosmos. College students gave presentations about the stars inside the planetarium and AfterSchool students learned about constellations.

Shaping Sounds is a 10 week class that will teach students the techniques of sound production using ProTools software and plug ins.  Students will also learn nuanced parts of the process like how to get the best work out of musicians in the studio.

Instructor: John Bergeron

Location: Green Street Arts Center, 51 Green Street, Middletown CT

Monday or Wednesdays from 1:00-4:00pm (based on student schedules)

Spring 2014

Week of February 3 – Week of April 21 (no class weeks of March 10, and March 17)

Class size: 4-6 students, 4 minimum enrollment

Class fee: $550.00 per student

Registration deadline: January 27th, 2014

Class Description: Learn how to record a song from start to finish at the Green Street Arts Center Sound Studio.  Our professional sound engineer, John Bergeron has recorded many albums of his own and has worked as a session player for keyboards, an arranger of strings and horns, a producer, and a recording engineer over the years.  He’s recorded in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, London, and more.

The class will start with learning the tools and etiquette of the studio of the studio.  Once students are acclimated to the equipment, John will demo the process of recording a song step by step.  Students in the class will identify singer songwriters or guitarists at Wesleyan to serve as guest artists for the class.  Guest artists will receive a free recording session and a copy of the final song.

Once the demo is complete, the class becomes very hands on.  Each student gets to go through the process of recording a guest artist with guidance from John.  You will get to pick the artist, set up the studio, record, edit, mix, and master the song.

If interested, please contact the Green Street Arts Center with your contact information and preferred class day of the week (Monday or Wednesday) at 860-685-7871 or gsac@wesleyan.edu .  This class is open to all majors.

Ornament decorating workshop courtesy of Middletown Parks & Recreation Dept at Green Street Arts Center.

Kids can decorate an ornament for FREE to place on their tree at home or give as a gift.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

10:30am-12:00pm

MxCC will be offering a credit & noncredit Music Appreciation Class at Green Street this Spring 2014.

Course Info:

MUS*137, History and Appreciation of Jazz 3 credits & noncredit option A music appreciation course that uncovers the development of Jazz from ragtime to contemporary practice.

CRN: 1671 (credit)

CRN: 1710 (noncredit)

Day: Friday

Time: 9am to 12pm

Instructor: Nathan Nokes

Start Date: February 7, 2014 (late start)

Location: Green Street Arts Center (2nd floor, performance studio)

Registration: Visit the Records Office,

Founders Hall at MxCC

Middlesex Community College

100 Training Hill Rd

Middletown, CT 06457

Hours: M 9am-6pm / T-Th 9am-4pm / F 9am-3pm

For more information contact Dr. Donna Bontatibus at 860-343-5802

www.mxcc.edu